Student's-Eye View of NJ's Statewide Tests

When your kids sit down to one of NJ's state tests, what do they need to know?

For all the talk these days about the value of New Jersey’s state tests for judging schools and teachers, here’s your chance to judge for yourself.

For the next five days, as students across the state take the NJ ASK elementary school tests, NJ Spotlight will run sample questions from the exams to give you a view into what the state expects your kids to know and do each step of the way.

We start with a handful of math questions for grades 3-5, both multiple choice and extended-response questions, which require several related answers. As New Jersey begins moving to the Common Core State Standards, the math questions will likely see the most change in this first year.

After you've gotten a feel for the questions, NJ Spotlight invites you to share your thoughts in the comments section about what New Jersey tests and how. We plan on republishing excerpts of your comments at the end of this five-day series.

One more thing: You can check your work against the answers at the end of this story. But no peeking.